“But what if Connor does show up?” I said.
“Well, it wouldn’t look good for Garrett, but then we’d have him at least,” Felicity said.
“I’m not willing to wager Garrett’s freedom like that,” I said. “We have to wait.”
That seemed to suck all the air out of Felicity. “I don’t want to wait. This is so important. This might be the only shot we get.”
“It’s too risky. It will be better if we can get rid of Connor for good and ensure that Garret gets out. We can’t rush it,” I said. “It’s like you just said, we have to be a little more patient. If we can sort Connor out, there’s more than one problem we’re going to be able to solve.”
A smile came across Felicity’s face. “Okay,” she said. “We’re in it together, so we wait it out together?” Felicity said.
I nodded. “Exactly.”
“Okay. I’ll file for another extension. The judge respects me a lot, but hopefully we can bring this to an end soon. Their patience with me has got to be running out.”
“Nico’s on the case now, and if I know my brother at all, and oddly enough, I think I do, he’s not just sitting around either. The other shoe is going to drop, we just have to wait.”
Felicity started to laugh. “Wait, when did it flip from me convincing you to you convincing me?”
I joined her, chuckling myself. “I think we may both be much better at giving advice than we are at receiving it.”
“You know, that’s not the first time I’ve heard that,” Felicity said, then she stood up. “Come on, let’s get home. I’m sure Concrete is chomping at the bit to see you.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Over the course of the next few days, Felicity made an intentional effort to make me feel more comfortable and less locked up. She frequently suggested I run errands with her, so long as they were going to be short and get me back home soon. She also allowed me to start taking Concrete on his walks around the neighborhood, even though a car that was one of Garrett’s people keeping an eye on me, always stayed close behind. I chose to ignore it and pretended that I was just some guy walking his dog around his neighborhood. It was my favorite of my new activities. The morning walks turned into runs, which reminded me how much I liked to work out. After mentioning that to Felicity, she brought me into the garage to present me with a surprise.
“Ta da!”
She opened the garage door, and I saw that in the fourth spot in the garage, where there was no car, had been converted into a workout center. She’d purchased a bench press, treadmill, exercise ball, and weights, and had laid them out in a way I could use them. A dog bed was in the corner of the garage, no doubt for Concrete to hang out on while I worked out.
“This is way too much,” I said. “This is so nice.”
“You said you like working out. Honestly, I’ve been waiting for you to mention any hobby or interest, so that I could create an abundance of it for you. I know it’s no fun being cooped up, so I want there to be things that interest you here. You haven’t even touched the new gaming system I bought,” she said.
I laughed. “I’ve never been much of a gamer honestly. Although, I did see a cooking game.”
“Yeah! The co-op one! I want to try it. We need to play it together,” Felicity said.
“That sounds amazing. Let’s do it tonight,” Deon said.
“Cool. Thinking spaghetti for dinner tonight?” Felicity said.
“Yeah. Actually, can I help?” I asked. “I want to learn more about cooking.”
She smiled. “Sure.”
“I feel bad, like I shouldn’t be enjoying myself so much, but if I have to be locked up, this is a pretty damn good way to do it,” I said.
She gave me a hug. “I know I’m not your first choice, but if there’s anything that can make waiting it out more comfortable, please tell me.”
“I will,” I said. “Thank you. What would honestly really help, is for you to let me help you out around here.” Felicity pulled away and I smiled. “Make me clean and shit. Let me cook for you sometimes. I just want to try and feel reasonably normal. I feel like I should be doing more to stop Connor or get back to Nathan and Cherri, but since I can’t, I want to just feel normal here.”
“I can do that,” Felicity said. “I’ll go full mom.”
I smiled at her. “I can’t wait.”
“I’ll leave you to your workout equipment,” Felicity said, walking away, but as she passed a few bags of cement she pointed down at them. “Can you bring these to the backyard when you’re done? They need to be poured for the new back patio.”
“Yes ma’am,” I replied and Felicity chuckled as she walked in through the garage door that led into the house.
Hopefully Nathan and Cherri would forgive me for being okay with my new normal. I wanted my life to cross back over with theirs eventually, but I wasn’t done being Felicity and Venom’s weird, hybrid son just yet, and while Nico hunted for Connor, I was going to lean all the way into it. I wanted to make up for the childhood I’d lost.
13
Cherri
After sorting things out with Brayden and following his trail to the end, we decided to let things cool down for a little bit. Brayden had strained himself much more than he let on to get to where we got, given he fell asleep on the way home and slept for the next six hours once we got back home. We knew that we wanted to compare notes with Nikita and Jaxon and try and find another way into the building, but I also didn’t want to push Brayden past his limit. He’d already done so much, and the last thing I wanted was to break him.
“Good morning,” Avery said.
She was walking into the kitchen with Alistair right behind her. They were both still in their pajamas, and Alistair was yawning. Avery slipped by my stool to give me a hug around my back, and then sat down next to me and Alistair across from her. The morning’s breakfast selection was a variety of meats, crackers, and cheeses, along with a basket of sweet breads, and the typical selection of fruits.
“Morning,” I said. “Hey, Ali.”
Alistair smiled at me. “Hey, Cherri. How’d you sleep?”
“I’ve been sleeping better these past few days. I don’t know if it’s because we actually took a huge step forward, but it’s been a little easier,” I replied.
“That’s good,” he said. “I really think we’re getting somewhere with Sicily and these pings. We’re really whittling down the list. Maybe we’ll strike gold and track down Connor and Deon at the same time.”
I rolled my eyes at the thought. “That sounds so overstimulating, I don’t know that I’d even be able to handle it.”
“Same,” Avery agreed. “Either one or the other. Not both.”
“Which would you prefer first?” Alistair asked with a sly smile on his face.
If it was his idea of a funny joke, I didn’t appreciate it, but I chose to ignore the jab and just answer the question. “Well… I really do want to find Deon as soon as possible because I miss him so much, but I think it would be better if we could find him after Connor, so that he can come back and be comfortable and get back to a normal life. I don’t want him to have to come home to a fucking fight.”